WINE
rosé has its day Don’t blush—there’s no need to be embarrassed. Nowadays, it’s perfectly O.K. to like rosé. More than that, it’s cool. It puts you on the cusp of a cultural wave that has swept up wine lovers from coast to coast. Call it a rosergence. Jay-Z has rapped about it. Drew Barrymore has reveled it in, releasing her own label of pinot noir rosé. Although pink wine still represents a mere 1.5 percent of the total U.S. table wine market—a proverbial drop in the industry bucket—demand for it is swelling. From mid-2016 to mid-2017, domestic consumption of rosé increased 53 percent by volume, surging to $258 million in sales, according to a report last year by Forbes. Over that same period, sparkling rosé also enjoyed a bump, its sales jumping by nearly 20 percent. It all adds up to a serious turnabout in reputation for a wine once snickered at by sophisticates. Starting in the 1970s, and for the good part of a generation, rosé was widely seen as the sweet pink drink of fru-fru cocktail parties, a déclassé concoction for less-than-nuanced palates, much of it sold in jugs by the likes of Gallo and Sutter Home. White zinfandel was the variety by which many people then came to know rosé, and it was often said that the wine’s very existence owed to an error. According to a broadly circulated story, it was born in 1975 when Sutter Home winemaker Bob Trinchero botched a production, giving rise to a high-in-sugar wine with the saccharine character of a Hallmark card. To Trinchero’s surprise, consumers loved it. For better or worse, a phenomenon was born. This, of course, was another era; the American market was just catching on to wine. “In that sense, those sweet rosés were great for the industry,” says Niki Wente, a fifth-generation vintner at venerable Wente Vineyards in Livermore, California. “They got a lot of people drinking and enjoying wine. And the more people learned, the more excited they became about the possibilities.” Wente is one of a growing number of young vintners who are unabashed in their embrace of rosé. Just last year, she expressed that fondness through the first release of Niki’s Pinot Noir Rosé, a crisp but complex wine that bears no resemblance to the cloying blushes of decades past. Dancing lightly on the palate, with notes of cantaloupe and orange zest, this rosé has a closer kinship to the traditionally bone-dry rosés of France, one of several countries where pink wine comes with a rich pedigree. Wide-ranging in its provenance, with deep roots in Spain, Portugal, Germany and Italy, among other wine-producing powers, rosé is also made in myriad styles, from such varietals as pinot noir, grenache and gamay, to name just a few. It appears in shades that span the pink-hued spectrum, from the reddest raspberry to the palest salmon. But no matter its iteration, rosé, at its best, is bright, refreshing and a delicious food wine fit for all occasions. Hence the growing popularity of a wine-world catchphrase. Say it with us: Rosé all day!
TASTING NOTES
Domaine Carneros Madame de Pompadour Rose NV, $37 Named after the French King Louis XV’s paramour, Madame de Pompadour, this has a delicate mousse, a lacy texture and aromatics of wild strawberries, ripe peach, apricot, pomegranate, honeysuckle and exotic spices. 2018 Niki’s Pinot Noir Rosé, $30 Brimming with aromatic hints of summer melon and ripe strawberry, this refreshing wine pairs beautifully with everything from rich cow’s-milk cheeses to roasted pork. J Vineyards Brut Rosé, $45 A vibrant sparkling rosé with a creamy mouthfeel that gives way to lively notes of blood orange and lemon. Try it with tuna poke or grilled prawns.
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LUX BOND & GREEN
FOR WINE CONNOISSEURS, A PINK PALETTE NEED NOT MEAN A CLOYING SWEETNESS ON THE PALATE. By Josh Sens
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3/12/19 11:26 AM